Collimated light occurs when a plurality of light rays are aligned substantially parallel to one another, as results when locating a point source of light at the focus of a reflecting paraboloidal structure. Collimated light has many desirable applications. For instance, collimated light has widespread use with automotive headlamps and in color displays where a uniform intensity of color must be displayed from one side of the display to the other. In addition, the use of collimated light permits the masking of certain colors when desired through resort to well known filtering techniques.
Though collimated light has many known desirable uses, such light can often not be effectively used due to certain inherent physical limitations. For instance, the focal point for the light source must be located a specified distance from the collimizing reflection surface, and this distance will often exceed the space limitations that must be met.
There therefore exists a need for a light collimizing device that minimizes such space requirements, and that particularly minimizes the required distance between the focal point and the collimizing reflecting surface by providing a folded light path.